Spend 10 min w/ @elisehogan today on BMag Online!

I got started in coffee in college as a barista at a cafe called Rosey Jekes in Hanover, N.H. My first “real” job out of college was in finance, and I quickly learned that I did not have the moral (or immoral) fortitude to hang with a bunch of scumbags. I moved to D.C. for an unpaid internship after the sexual harassment at my job was too much to bear—honestly, I think I would have done anything else at that time to get out of there. My internship was at a defense think tank doing communications, and I picked up some shifts at a local coffee shop to make ends meet. I was hired by the manager, Alex Mason (now a partner at Press Coffee ), at a coffee shop called Chinatown Coffee Company . As the unpaid internship turned into a paid internship which turned into a job, I couldn’t let go of being a barista; two years into my time in D.C., I made the jump full time into specialt...